Keeping Commerce Weird Podcast: New Tech Cannot Rewrite Human Nature

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Key highlights:

• Commerce technology continues to evolve, but the fundamental needs of shoppers remain remarkably stable.

Commerce technology continues to evolve, but the fundamental needs of shoppers remain remarkably stable.

• The biggest innovations in commerce succeed by removing obstacles to finding, buying, and receiving what you want.

The biggest innovations in commerce succeed by removing obstacles to finding, buying, and receiving something.

• Artificial intelligence can simplify product discovery, but without sufficient context, it can create new difficulties and lead shoppers down the wrong path.

Artificial intelligence can simplify product discovery, but without sufficient context, it can create new difficulties and lead shoppers down the wrong path.

• Automation makes sense for routine purchases, but searching, comparing, and the joy of finding something new remain valuable elements of shopping.

Automation makes sense for routine purchases, but searching, comparing, and the joy of finding something new remain valuable elements of shopping.

• As AI influences an increasing number of purchasing decisions, brand reputation, reviews, and other trust signals may play a more important role in which products are recommended.

As AI influences an increasing number of purchasing decisions, brand reputation, reviews, and other trust signals may play a more important role in which products are recommended.

Commerce is changing. Human behavior is not.

Every era of commerce brings new technologies that promise to change how people shop. But behind the new channels, interfaces, and buzzwords are shoppers who are still trying to solve the same problems they always have.

This is the focus of this episode of the Keeping Commerce Weird podcast. In the episode "New Tech, Same Ol’ Humans: The Psychology Behind Commerce," Travis Hess speaks with regular guest Al Williams, VP of Market Strategy at Commerce, to look beyond the latest trends and examine the patterns that have shaped commerce for generations.

Their conversation boils down to one idea: technology keeps changing, but human behavior does not change nearly as fast. From mail-order catalogs to e-commerce and AI-powered agents, the biggest shifts in commerce have consistently been defined by the same goal: removing barriers between people and what they need.

Here are the key takeaways from this discussion.

Keeping Commerce Weird Podcast Overview: New Tech, Same Ol’ Humans: The Psychology of Commerce

The history of commerce is essentially the history of removing barriers.

Travis Hess: You have studied the entire history of e-commerce looking for patterns. Not technologies, but patterns. At the highest level, what did you find?

Al Williams: "I started with the thought: 'What trends are relevant today? Where is commerce heading? Where is the ball rolling?' When people talk about trends, they talk about agentic commerce, orchestration, connectivity, choice, and convenience.

I decided to look at history and think: 'History always repeats itself. What patterns do we see?' Starting from the very first transactions, regardless of whether they happened on an e-commerce platform or not, I think people generally only need a few things.

They want to find what they need as quickly as possible and without unnecessary obstacles. They want to check out easily and conveniently. And now, in the era of e-commerce, they want to know exactly when they will receive their order. We also want to be valued for our loyalty.

No matter what technologies exist, they are designed to remove the friction that arises from human desires and needs.

If physical stores were the only option, the friction would be location and the fact that you need to be physically close to the store. The emergence of mail-order catalogs and fulfillment centers became the technology that solved this problem: 'I just want to buy something, and I want it to be accessible and close to me.'

Ultimately, the patterns I observed are not so much about technology as they are about the emergence of a new channel or the occurrence of a new pain point. Then, technology must evolve to solve that problem for us."

Key takeaway

The technologies underlying commerce continue to change, but the problems they solve are remarkably constant. From mail-order catalogs to e-commerce, significant innovations have largely followed the same pattern: identify what makes finding, buying, or receiving a product harder than it needs to be, and then remove those obstacles.

AI can remove barriers, but it can also create them.

Hess: Does AI remove obstacles by introducing context into these dialogues, making it easier to find something?

Williams: "Absolutely. Instead of going to five, six, or seven different sites to evaluate the thing I need, I can get everything in one place. So if the pain point is 'I want to find something easily,' then it definitely removes obstacles.

But it can also potentially create new difficulties. If we move to agentic checkout within a language model or an agentic interface, we are removing a secondary problem: 'Let me buy this as easily as possible.'

I was thinking about agentic search and how, in some cases, it is frustrating. I used to work at The Container Store, and people would constantly come to us and say, 'I'm looking for a box.' And I would ask, 'Okay, what is this box for? Are you going to mail it? Will there be liquid in it? What size do you need?'

Some people would come in, and I would direct them to a 14-by-14-inch corrugated box. No problem. Others were looking for a one-by-one-inch acrylic box in bright pink. But every person would walk in and say, 'I'm looking for a box.'

I feel like that is what AI looks like right now. It is ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Gemini. Someone comes in and says, 'I'm looking for such and such.' If you don't have the context to ask the right questions or even understand what context needs to be entered, you will be frustrated.

Our job as experts in this field is to educate companies on how to use tools in a way that smooths out the difficulties they might otherwise create themselves."

Key takeaway

AI can consolidate a fragmented search process into an interaction with a single interface, but convenience without context can still lead shoppers in the wrong direction. The challenge for brands is to ensure that AI has the information needed to understand intent, formulate better questions, and help customers make the right decisions with less effort.

Convenience will not destroy the shopping process itself.

Hess: Do you agree that a significant portion of the population actually enjoys shopping? In many product categories, I wouldn't want a bot to deprive me of that. In some categories, I don't care. I order the same toothpaste constantly. Do I care if someone can find it cheaper elsewhere if it arrives before the tube runs out?

Williams: "I think there is a difference when it comes to commodities and basic items. That's why Amazon has been so successful. When you need something like toilet paper or sponges, the convenience of a marketplace is truly invaluable."

But personally, I actually enjoy the treasure hunt process. I have the time and the ability to go to three, four, five, or six stores or browse many websites. If I want to buy a swimsuit, I can research options online, go to a couple of stores, and find exactly what I need.

At the same time, when you go to TJ Maxx, you still want to look around and know where the men's, women's, sportswear, or accessory sections are. That in itself lowers the level of barriers. It answers the question: 'Where do I need to go in the store to find what I want?'

From this perspective, agentic commerce that removes barriers for basic goods will certainly become a major trend and will be fully embraced. But there will always be a certain level of personal validation for a large portion of people who love the search process. They love to shop. They love to find good deals."

Key Takeaway

Convenience matters most when the purchase itself is routine. But for categories focused on discovery, browsing, comparing, and validating are part of the experience that consumers value. As automation expands, brands need to understand the difference between barriers that get in the way and barriers that make shopping enjoyable.

Trust becomes more valuable when AI influences decision-making.

Hess: What I struggle with regarding agentic search is trust. If these recommendations don't meet your expectations, people will be disappointed. Or worse, if you buy something that was recommended and the product turns out not to be what you expected, it creates a problem for both the buyer and the brand.

Williams: "There will be enough cases where someone blindly takes a recommendation at face value and ends up disappointed with what they receive. I think the situation will change very soon: brands will either pay for it, or a rating system will emerge where you will be penalized or evaluated based on brand awareness, return rates, positive reviews, or something similar.

Some kind of verification model will have to emerge. That is my prediction. If language models are truly going to hold the focus of visibility or access to consumers, as well as the influence itself, of course, it will be worth it."

Key Takeaway

As AI plays an increasingly important role in product search, trust may become the most critical signal of visibility. Brand awareness, positive reviews, return rates, and other markers of reliability can help AI systems determine which products to recommend, making reputation more important as consumers rely on these recommendations.

Final Word

Commerce has never stopped evolving. New channels emerge, new technologies change expectations, and AI creates another way for people to find and buy products. But as this conversation shows, the motivation behind these decisions hasn't changed all that much.

People still want to find what they need, buy it easily, know when they will get it, and be confident that they made the right choice. The technologies that survive are those that make this experience easier without losing what people truly value about shopping.

As AI takes on a greater role in commerce, this distinction will matter. The challenge is not to completely eliminate every barrier in the buyer's journey. The challenge is to understand which barriers hinder the customer and which aspects of the experience are worth preserving.

Listen to the full conversation about barriers, AI, consumer psychology, and what the history of commerce can teach us about the future on the podcast "New Tech, Same Ol’ Humans: The Psychology Behind Commerce" at .

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